Skerryvore have released their ambitious new album, Beautiful Mistakes, marking another milestone in a career that has seen the Scottish band grow from their roots in the Hebrides into one of the country’s most celebrated live acts. The record arrives following the success of 2023’s Tempus, their first album to reach the UK Top 40 and a chart-topper on both the Folk Albums and Scottish Albums charts.
Skerryvore
The release of Beautiful Mistakes coincides with the start of the band’s UK headline tour, which gets underway in Edinburgh tonight (6 November), with dates taking in Scotland, England, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland throughout November and December.
For their latest record, Skerryvore embraced a more instinctive and organic approach to songwriting and recording, working for the first time with producer Jamie Squire, whose previous credits include The 1975. Rather than becoming absorbed in the finer details, the band focused on the chemistry developing in the studio, allowing the songs to evolve naturally. The result is their most ambitious and personal collection to date, with frontman and songwriter Alec Dalglish drawing on more introspective experiences and embracing a greater degree of vulnerability.
As Dalglish explains: “Making this album has been a much more organic process, where we often started acoustically, quite small, with the idea that the listener should feel like they’re in the room with us. Some of the songs still ended up sounding huge, but I think there’s a maturity there, and we really captured the live element of it all.”
The album explores familiar emotional territory for Skerryvore, with themes of love, loss, belonging, nostalgia and hope threaded throughout. Its focus track, Second Chance, brings a fresh pop sensibility to the band’s Celtic-influenced sound, pairing an irresistibly catchy chorus with a more playful take on the end of a relationship. Dalglish describes it as his own Taylor Swift moment, admitting: “I guess this was my Taylor Swift moment, saying ‘I’m breaking up with you, we’re never getting back together’. That’s something I’ve certainly never done before, but it definitely felt cathartic.”
The new track follows a trio of singles that have already offered a glimpse into the album’s range. Fly delivers unrestrained energy, while Singing Up In Heaven leans into the band’s emotional strengths. While I’m Still Breathing, a duet featuring Tamzene, adds another dimension, bringing together two voices in one of the record’s most affecting moments.
Across its ten tracks, Beautiful Mistakes takes the listener on a journey through contrasting moods and musical landscapes. It opens with Scaranish, a beautifully evocative instrumental named after a village on the Isle of Tiree, the Scottish island that founding members Daniel Gillespie and Martin Gillespie call home.
From there, the album moves into the bagpipe-assisted Celtic rock of The Game, whose driving rhythm gives way to the more serene In Your Eyes, a song with the warmth and sentiment of a future first-dance favourite. Elsewhere, Oh My Love reflects on a relationship that has come to an end, while Easy That Way combines mournful flute and cascading piano to explore the difficult realisation that love does not always last.
The journey eventually arrives at the title track, Beautiful Mistakes, a pared-back closing statement that allows each instrument room to breathe and emerge as its own character. Its reflective outlook acknowledges that life’s experiences are rarely perfect or permanent, bringing the album to a thoughtful and emotionally resonant conclusion.
Physical editions of Beautiful Mistakes are available through the band’s official store, including signed CDs, black vinyl, signed black-and-white sunburst vinyl and eight cassette variants, each themed around and signed by a different band member. A limited-edition, hand-stamped CD also features two bonus tracks recorded live at Glasgow’s Barrowland. In support of Street Soccer Scotland, £1 from every copy of this special edition will be donated to the organisation, which uses football to support people facing challenging circumstances.
With Beautiful Mistakes now available, Skerryvore are taking the new material directly to audiences across the UK and Ireland. The tour begins at Edinburgh Corn Exchange before heading to Glasgow, where the band will play the O2 Academy and an intimate live session at The Park Bar. Further stops include Kelso, Dumfries, Fort William, Sunderland, Settle, Cambridge, London, Bridlington and Lincoln, followed by December dates in Bath, Manchester, Dundee, Belfast and Dublin.
The band will also head to Denmark in November before embarking on extensive international touring throughout 2027, with dates planned across North America, Australia and Europe.
After 20 years together, Skerryvore continue to build on the momentum of Tempus, with Beautiful Mistakes demonstrating a band confident enough to embrace new creative possibilities while retaining the emotional connection, musicianship and Celtic identity that have brought them such a devoted following.
Upcoming UK & Ireland Live Dates:
NOVEMBER
6th – Edinburgh, Corn Exchange
7th – Glasgow, O2 Academy
12th – Kelso, Tait Hall
13th – Dumfries, Easterbrook Hall
14th – Fort William, Nevis Centre
24th – Sunderland, The Fire Station
25th – Settle, Victoria Hall
26th – Cambridge, Junction
27th – London, O2 Academy Islington
28th – Bridlington, Spa
29th – Lincoln, The Drill Hall
DECEMBER
1st – Bath, Komedia
2nd – Manchester, Academy 2
5th – Dundee, LiveHouse
10th – Belfast, Limelight
11th – Dublin, The Academy
17th – Dunoon, Queen’s Hall
18th – Stirling, Albert Hall
19th – Aberdeen, Music Hall
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